36 Years Ago: Aerosmith Injured Onstage in Philadelphia – Round One

On Oct. 10, 1977, Aerosmith found out just how rough a town Philadelphia can be when a fan threw an M-80 onstage. And it wouldn't be the last time they learned this painful lesson.

As guitarist Brad Whitford explained in Goldmine, "We were going back up on the stage to do the encore. I was going up the stairs right behind [singer] Steven [Tyler] and [guitarist] Joe [Perry[ and I felt the concussion of the cherry bomb going off. Steven immediately covered his face and there was blood shooting up out of Joe’s arm, literally. So pretty quickly we got ourselves to the emergency room."

The incident reportedly burned Tyler's cornea, ruptured an artery in Perry's hand and forced the band off the road for a while. Understandably angry, the group declined offers for a return to the city of brotherly love for a while. "I have to say we were shaken by it and extremely pissed off," says Whitford. "We had a few offers to come back and we passed on it."

Eventually, of course, the band did return to the scene of the crime. But a little more than a year later, on Nov. 25, 1978, Tyler was once again injured onstage at a Philadelphia show. As Whitford recalled in the band's 'Walk This Way' autobiography, "Five songs into a sold-out show, someone threw a beer bottle from the balcony. It hit the stage dead center, right in front of the monitor, and exploded, sending shards of glass into Steven's face. I think some glass went right through his mouth. That's it. Backstage, Steven's holding a towel to his bloody face, and he wants to go back on! The vote was four-to-one against, and we were in the limos two minutes later. F--- this."